This week on Up Close, we’re talking about symbols both physical and philosophical — the symbols we make, the symbols we wear and the symbols we use to guide our lives.

First, why do people get tattoos, and how do they choose which symbols to put on their skin? Graphic journalist Wendy MacNaughton and Buzzfeed Books Editor Isaac Fitzgerald talk about their illustrated book, Pen & Ink: Tattoos & the Stories Behind Them.

Next, the fashion world experienced a makeover in the 1990s, opening up to alternative notions of beauty thanks to a few rogue figures who would become icons in their own right. NY Post reporter Maureen Callahan captures the details of that shift and the intimate lives of her subjects in Champagne Supernovas: Kate Moss, Marc Jacobs, Alexander McQueen and the 90s Renegades Who Remade Fashion.

Finally, how do symbols and restrictions, including those in the Jewish tradition, actually free us to live better lives? Cornell University professor Tracy McNulty wrestles with these questions in Wrestling With The Angel: Experiments in Symbolic Life, which host Steven I. Weiss calls one of the books that did the most “to surprise and shift my perspective” this year.